1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mobile robot which specifies the ID of a person with a detection tag represented by a RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tag, and which has a communication with the person with the detection tag based on personal information associated with the ID.
2. Description of Relevant Art
Recently, researches and development of an autonomous mobile robot have been made intensively. Especially, the researches and development about a robot, which is so-called as a bipedal walking mobile robot, attract a lot of attentions.
Additionally, researches and development about a voice reorganization apparatus, which recognizes a voice of a person and converts the voice into a text, and a voice synthesis apparatus, which performs a voice synthesis and outputs a synthesized voice, have been made. Thus, a voice reorganization apparatus and a voice synthesis apparatus are just becoming employed in various kinds of apparatus. Also, a mobile robot, which has a voice reorganization apparatus and a voice synthesis apparatus and which is adapted to have a conversation with a person, has been investigated intensively.
If the robot is requested to have a friendly communication with a person using a motion, e.g. gesture, a hand gesture, a hand language and etc., and a voice, the robot has to start appropriate conversation and motion at a suitable timing, based on personal information of the person, when the robot R passes by a person in the course of travel.
Therefore, various kinds of apparatus and method for identifying the person who communicates with the robot are proposed. Here, the techniques disclosed in Japanese unexamined patent publication JP2004-299025 (US2004/199292 and JP2001-129787 have been discovered as examples of conventional techniques.
In the case of the invention disclosed in JP2004-299025, the recognition of the person is performed by extracting a contour of a person from an image obtained by an image pickup using cameras.
In the case of the invention disclosed in JP2001-129787, a robot which greets a person who has an ID apparatus, e.g. a wireless badge, with calling the name of the person is disclosed.
In the case of the invention disclosed in JP2004-299025, since image recognition processing is used to identify a person, an appreciable time is required for achieving the identification of the person. In this case, therefore, it is hard for the robot to have a communication with a person at suitable timing when the robot passes by a person.
Additionally, in the case of the invention disclosed in JP2001-129787, the robot greets a person who has an ID apparatus, e.g. a wireless badge, with calling the name of the person. But a technical disclosure about how to start a communication with a person at a suitable timing does not exist therein.
Therefore, a mobile robot, which obtains information relating to a person when the robot communicates with the person, and which has a communication with the person using a motion of a body or voice message, has been required. Especially, a mobile robot, which has a communication with the person at a suitable timing determined in consideration of the locomotion speed of the mobile robot, has been required.